FLASH
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reacted to Trump's decision to freeze military aid.
Regarding the tense meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, Zelensky expressed regret, emphasizing that he did not want it to go that way.
The Ukrainian president said it is time to fix things and added that Ukraine is ready to sign the agreement on minerals.
After Zelensky's words – Ukraine's concessions
First, the Ukrainian President is clearly taking a step (perhaps more depending on the reading and interpretation) away from the rigid character he showed especially in London and after leaving Washington amid a barrage of insults. The Ukrainian President in his announcement speaks of the intention and readiness for an immediate peace agreement. Zelensky goes from "the war will last years" to "My team and I are ready, under the leadership of President Trump, to achieve a lasting peace". Volodymyr Zelensky also takes some responsibility for the extremes of last Friday and goes from "I have nothing to apologize for" on Fox News and interviews moments after the tension and diplomatic rupture to "I am sorry that things turned out this way".
At the same time, in the announcement, Zelensky does not leave out the complaints of the country's Vice President and the latter that "you have not said a single sincere thank you to President Trump" and emphasizes this by devoting an entire paragraph in his text to precisely this "key" point when talking about Donald Trump, underlining "We recall the moment when everything changed when President Trump gave Ukraine Javel. We are grateful".
The most important point of the entire announcement, however, concerns the ceasefire plan that the US has been talking about for at least two months and which Kiev had strongly opposed. Zelensky makes specific reference with absolute precision to what he and his country are willing to do, stating that "We are ready to work quickly to end the war, and the first stages could include an exchange of prisoners of war, a ban on the use of long-range missiles and drones, the bombing of energy infrastructure and housing, and an immediate ceasefire at sea, if Russia does the same." Given that the Ukrainian President accepts the American proposal for a ceasefire that Trump and Secretary of State Rubio have openly proposed for the past 20 days.
The Ukrainian trap, Kiev's talented diplomatic pen and the deal with the US
The announcement could easily be interpreted as a text that came out under American pressure to end the arms deal with Ukraine. However, the truth is that "the devil is in the details," and this particular text is full of such details.
Nowhere does Zelensky apologize to Donald Trump, as Vice President Vance and many members of the US President's staff have urgently demanded. With the word "I'm sorry," Zelensky takes some responsibility for Friday's debacle, but this seems more like a gesture of appeasement to an irritated colleague than an admission of the "I apologize - you're right" form. In the second part, Zelensky proposes a detailed ceasefire plan that was agreed with Ukraine's European partners at the recent London conference and lists the key points that France and Britain in particular asked him to accept in order to have substantial developments and pressure on Moscow, which has been a spectator to this day... At the same time, the Ukrainian president and his team have clearly studied all the information in the football office that will potentially give them some substantial result and force Trump to not "freeze" the issue and change his priorities in terms of speed and pressure for a solution. Zelensky is referring to Trump's move to provide Ukraine with anti-tank weapons in 2016, as it was this very move that Trump himself clearly referred to with anger a few days ago. Its use by Ukraine is both diplomatically astute and strategically "cunning", since it is precisely on such statements that the way in which the 47th President shows his favor or displeasure is based ... While the praise and references to Trump are clear, there is not a single word "thank you" anywhere, except in relation to the American people.
But the big trap that Kiev has no problem hiding (or no longer intends to do so) is at the end of Zelensky's post. In it, the Ukrainian president refers to the agreement that for the US is a "rare earths agreement", but for Kiev it is a "minerals and security agreement". Ukraine declares that it is still ready to sign the text of the agreement, but again sets conditions for security guarantees. Zelensky refers to his text - amended - and not to the one that the US twice tried unsuccessfully to force him to sign. The Ukrainian president insists on the last 46 words of his text, using the word "security" three times, a phrase that seems to have been the spark that finally ignited the bloodshed in the Oval Office. Zelensky makes a special reference to this specific issue, writing about "greater security and strong security guarantees,"explaining that in this "bargain" he knows what the US wants and that this something has a specific "price".
In any case, the text of this specific announcement is aware that it has a lot and, most importantly, significant diplomatic work, as it has included various elements – first of all, in an attempt to produce dialogue, solutions and results. In a manner devoid of tension and emotion, elements have been used that put the country's leader in an uncomfortable and extremely difficult position, without any trace of irritation or anger.
It is this specific move that essentially “fixed” in a nutshell everything that was said on Friday night and gives another dimension to the developments in Ukraine.
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